MOTHERS MINE

The small village of Harby in Leicestershire has existed for more than one thousand years. Harby is mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1100’s) as being owned by Robert de Todeni - standard bearer to William the Conqueror at the battle of Hastings. The village at that time having fourteen ploughs, which was important because it was the way of calculating tax.

Over the next couple of centuries the area didn’t change a great deal. The first castle was built by Robert de Todeni in the Vale of Belvoir. Robin of Oxley reputedly robbed the rich and courted Maid Marion in nearby Sherwood forest, and by 1538 the Duke of Rutland (Thomas Manners) owned part of the village lands and the prominent family of De La Warre were also linked with the village. (Lord De La Warr helped settle the Americas and became the first Governor of Viginia, having arrived there in 1610, and the US State of Delaware was subsequently named for him).

In 1795 John Nichols wrote a book on the history of the area, and recorded that by 1790 the village had 322 residents who belonged to 60 families. One of the families being that of Thomas Musson who with six other families had rights to the common land.

My great great great grandmother Mary

Family records show George was married to Mary Lamin who was born in 1800 and died on 12 December 1864, which is supported by transcripts of the parish records which show George Musson marrying Mary Lamin on 3 November 1828. However a recent search of the Harby churchyard shows what appears to be the same Mary being buried as the wife of George’s brother Thomas.

Somewhere either an error has been made, or some event occurred which isn’t recorded in official records. Research is certainly made more difficult by that fact that two of George’s brothers (William and Thomas) also married women called Mary. Until the anomaly is resolved, the ggg-grandmother will have to be known only as ‘Mary’.

Mary’s husband George (like his father Thomas, grandfather William, and great-grandfather John), was a carpenter, and Mary was a dressmaker - at least she was when her occupation was listed in the 1851 census. Mary was then also listed as a widow, her husband George having died on 24 Jan 1850.

My great grandmother Ann Manchester.

The second child of the marriage of Sarah Musson and Edward Manchester was a daughter named Ann - born 7 April 1856 before they emigrated to Australia in 1857. At the time they emigrated, Edwards father was deceased and his mother was living in Harby.

Although Sarahs father had also died by then, it seems an incredibly courageous decision by Sarah to leave her mother (Mary), her aunts and uncles, and her brothers and their wives to travel to a new land with her husband Edward and their tiny baby girl Ann. They left Southampton on the Beejapore having paid $1.0.0 for their fare and arrived in Australia on 14 March 1857. On arrival their daughter Ann was barely 11 months old.

Ann with her parents settled in the Orange area of NSW and established themselves as orchardists at Canobolas growing mainly apples, and between the years of 1859 and 1873 Sarah and Edward had eight more children. It was the baby Ann however who was to become my great-grandmother after marrying Charles Williams at Canobolas in 1880.

Charles was the youngest son of Thomas Williams a convict transportee, and his English born wife Mary Ann, daughter of another convict transportee Richard Bankin.

(When I was about 8 or 9, we visited mum’s aunt at Manildra. They lived in a larger more recent home, but nearby was a well preserved mud ‘hut’ which had been the original dwelling on the property - I think this had been the home of Charles and Ann Williams after their marriage in 1880)

My grandmother.

Charles and Ann Williams also had eight children, and again my maternal ancestor was the first daughter. Laura Ann Williams, born 21 July 1883.

My darling gentle grandmother Laura Ann. Her father Charles had trained as an apprentice shoemaker, but later moved to the Manildra area and took up a 40 acre property. Laura Ann attended school at Manildra and upon leaving school did housework for the Minister at the Methodist Manse at Molong.

On 12 September 1905 she married James Gilston Connelly at the Manildra Church of England Church. They lived at Molong after their marriage, with their first child, Donald Gilston Connelly being born on 7 August 1906.

My mother Ethel Isabell Connelly.

The second child of Laura Ann and James was my mother Ethel, born at Molong 30 June 1908. The third child Ilma Mary (known as Molly) was also born at Molong in 1910 before the family moved to Deer Vale and then to South Grafton. There followed the birth of James and Lillian, Harold being born in 1920 after a move to a farm at Brushgrove, and finally Hazel and Michael were born in 1924 and 1927 after their move to a farm at Swan Creek.

As the oldest daughter Ethel spent much time helping to look after the younger children, and left school when about 12 years old to help out on the farm. She told stories of many floods which affected those living on the banks of the Clarence river, and the hardships endured by early farmers.

She had various jobs before marrying including periods of housework and waitressing at the Mount Conobolas Hotel near Orange which she seemed to remember with fondness. Then in 1941 when 33 years old Ethel married Frederick Stevens, and gave birth to a son Frederick James in 1942.

Me - Lynda Fay Stevens

The second child and first daughter of Ethel and Frederick Stevens, born in 1945. My story can wait until another time. Enough to say that my daughter was born in 1965. She in turn married in the early 1990s and has three sons.

I love my grandsons very much. But this appears to be is the end of a female line which stems from time before imagining. Each daughter has a mother. If our world had a ‘first mother’ she was our ancestor. And each mother in our family had at least one daughter - until now.

My grandsons, this is my legacy to you. The story of seven of your mothers.